Westerly also admits it needs a buyer or some type of merger if it wants to survive in this health care climate. It was negotiating exclusively with Lawrence and Memorial Hospital until it decided to seek receivership. Westerly says once it’s under court supervision it has to be open to other bidders. Will L&M swoop in after a long and protracted process? Who can say?

Westerly’s spokesman Nick Stahl says he hopes this receivership doesn’t last as long.

Where that one has been a number of years, we would like to think our situation would be more in the range of a year to 18 months.